A scene's biggest night belongs at home. The Latin Grammys show what leaving costs

On 16 November 2023, Shakira posed in front of a press wall in Seville with three words printed behind her: Latin Grammy, 2023, Andalucía. It was the first time in the awards' history that the ceremony had left the United States. The Andalusian regional government had signed a sponsorship deal worth more than €20 million to bring it there. When the Latin Grammys finally went abroad, they went to the government that paid, and that government was in Europe.

Three years on, the habit is spreading. The Headies, Nigeria's biggest music awards, have moved their 18th edition to Toronto, now set for 10 and 11 April 2027. Shah Rukh Khan's new festival UNIFYD, built on three of India's biggest voices in Arijit Singh, Karan Aujla and Sonu Nigam, opens on 20 March 2027 on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, made with the emirate's Department of Culture and Tourism. K-pop's MAMA Awards will be at Kyocera Dome Osaka on 20 and 21 November, as they have been abroad for most years since 2010.

Our argument is simple. A show that exists to crown a home scene should be held in that scene most years. Going abroad can be the occasional away game that pays for the home one. It should never become the rule, and the Latin Grammys, now 27 editions in, show what happens when it does.

The case for leaving is a real one

Start with the strongest version of the other side, because it is strong.

The Headies' founder, Ayo Animashaun, has said that the awards would have died if they had not left Nigeria in 2022, when the 15th edition was staged at the Cobb Energy Centre in Atlanta. Sponsors, he has argued, are easier to land abroad, and Toronto has a large Nigerian community; the April weekend is set to come with a trade and investment summit. The organisers' own site sells the move as "Africa to the World." After Nigeria floated the naira in 2023 and it lost more than two thirds of its value against the dollar, a show paid for in naira and costed in dollars had a hard sum to do.

MAMA is the success story for this view. CJ ENM has taken the show to Macau, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Los Angeles because K-pop is made for export, and its biggest foreign market is next door in Japan. Holding the ceremony in Osaka puts it in front of the fans who buy the tickets and the albums.

UNIFYD has its own logic. The Gulf is home to one of the largest Indian communities anywhere, the venue comes with state backing, and a one-day bill with Arijit, Aujla and Nigam will sell in Abu Dhabi. Organisers say it is the first time Sonu Nigam will play a music festival at all.

All of that is true. None of it answers what an awards night is for.

What the Latin Grammys became

The Latin Recording Academy was set up in 1997 to honour music from Latin America, Spain and Portugal and the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking audience in the US. Its headquarters are in Miami. The first ceremony was in Los Angeles in 2000. The second was meant for Miami in September 2001, until the Academy pulled it out over safety fears about planned protests by Cuban exile groups against Cuban nominees. It moved to Los Angeles and was then cancelled on the morning of 11 September. The Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés, one of that year's nominees, criticised the move at the time, arguing that music should stand above politics.

Since then the show has been held in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Houston and, most years since 2007, Las Vegas. The 27th ceremony is at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on 12 November. Seville, in 2023, is the only time it has left the US. It has never once been held in Latin America.

That matters more every year. In 2025, Latin America was the fastest-growing recorded music region in the world, up 17.1 per cent, its 16th straight year of growth according to IFPI's annual report. This year's leading nominees include Karol G from Medellín, Silvana Estrada from Veracruz, and the Argentines CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso and Milo J, as we noted in our Latin Grammys preview. For most of their fans, watching their night in person means a US visa, a flight and a Las Vegas hotel.

The awards built for that region are staged, every year, for a television audience in another country. That is a decision, not a law of nature, and Seville proved it: the Academy can move when someone pays. It simply has not taken the ceremony to the cities whose music it is giving prizes to.

What a night at home pays for

An awards ceremony is not only a broadcast. It is a week of work for the people who make a scene look like itself: stylists, set builders, lighting crews, caterers, hotel staff, the photographers who will shoot the next album covers. When Miami lost the 2001 ceremony, local estimates put the cost at about $35 million. Seville's mayor later put the 2023 gala's impact on his city at around €100 million. Whatever you think of those numbers, they land somewhere. They should land where the music comes from.

The Headies already ran this test. After two editions in Atlanta, the 17th came home, to the Landmark Event Centre in Lagos on 27 April 2025. Rema's HEIS won Album of the Year, Asake's "Lonely At The Top" won Song of the Year, and Zerry DL took Rookie of the Year in a room his fans could actually get into.

That is the part a move to Toronto gives away. A Lagos ceremony is a night where a street-pop newcomer can sit three rows from Rema. A Toronto ceremony is one where the nominees who can afford a Canadian visitor visa turn up, and everyone else watches online. The Headies count as Nigeria's yardstick because Nigerians agree to be measured by them. Hold them abroad often enough and they become what the Latin Grammys have become: a trade fair with trophies.

The fix: crown at home, take the show on tour

None of this means locking the doors. The away game has real uses: sponsors, diaspora tickets, a new market. So use it the way MAMA uses Osaka, as a deliberate choice, and pair it with a rule. The ceremony comes home at least every other year, and the away editions are sold to fund the home ones.

The Headies could start by flipping their own plan. They have spoken about a Lagos watch party for the Toronto night. Turn it around: hold the ceremony in Lagos and give Toronto the watch party, the trade summit and a showcase gig. The Latin Recording Academy already runs Latin Grammy Week as a spread of concerts, panels and parties. It could take that week on tour to Miami and Madrid in the years the ceremony sits in Mexico City, Bogotá or Buenos Aires, cities whose arenas already host the biggest tours in the world.

UNIFYD is a different case, and a fair one to watch. It is a festival, not an awards show, and festivals can travel; the organisers say they plan to take it to other cities. The test is simple. If India's biggest stars on one stage works in Abu Dhabi in March, it should arrive in Mumbai or Delhi soon after, not stay a Gulf export.

The tribute that could have stayed home

On 11 November, the night before the Latin Grammys, the Academy will honour Daddy Yankee as its 2026 Person of the Year with a tribute concert in Las Vegas. He grew up in the Villa Kennedy housing project in San Juan and carried reggaeton from Puerto Rico's caseríos to the rest of the world. "Gasolina" did more than any single record to make that happen.

Last year, Bad Bunny played 31 shows at El Choliseo in San Juan and showed that the world will travel to Puerto Rico for a night of Puerto Rican music. Puerto Rico is a US territory. The Academy would not even need a new passport to honour Daddy Yankee on his own island. It chose the Strip anyway, and that choice tells you who the night is really for.